Father's Day: Dad and daughter catch time together but not a lot of fish with new hobby

Terry Kiner stood on a little island toward one bank of the Yellow Breeches Creek, an old stone bridge beside him.

The rush of water flowing over a dam a bit upstream drowned out almost every other sound, but now and then a bird chirped above it all.

He flicked his fly rod overhead, first forward, then back, methodically letting the line out as he went. The fish avoided him, and the three other fisherman standing in the water didn’t speak.

View full sizeJenny Kane, The Patriot-NewsEmily Kiner hands her father her fishing line so that her father Terry Kiner can fix it. Emily and her father have been fly fishing together since last year.

But really none of that mattered. His eyes fell across the water. His daughter, Emily Kiner, stood in the creek near the opposite bank. Her arm swung back and forth, too, teasing out the line on an identical rod. Her eyes came back to the little island, watching her dad.

The Kiners are new to fly fishing, a sport that can take years to master. Emily was excited to learn the basics when she saw a flier for a daylong workshop last July.

She was the only woman who took the class, which turned out to be a mix of children and men in their 30s, 40s or 50s.

A 35-year-old Camp Hill resident, Emily works at TE Connectivity Ltd. Terry, 62, lives in New Cumberland. He’s been an electrician, but he’s retiring in a few weeks.

Emily loves being outdoors, loves standing in creeks, loves getting in touch with her food and where it comes from. But the best part, she said, is spending time with her dad.

He taught her fishing as a kid. As an adult, she taught him fly fishing.

‘We don’t get a lot of fish’

Because of fly fishing, they started shopping together, buying matching rods, bags and clip-on lights. They share a fishing magazine. “We went out a couple times, and we had a lot of fun,” Emily said.

They kept up their momentum over the winter, learning how to tie flies at a workshop.

They’ll probably never become experts, but that’s not the point.

“We haven’t put all this together yet. I’m a good monkey-see-monkey-do guy. I watch what Em does,” Terry said. “I just like being out and being with Em.”

She’s busy, and they don’t see each other as often as he’d like, Terry said. “They don’t come any better than Em. I think we both look forward to just being together. We don’t get a lot of fish, but we don’t dwell on it. ‘We’ll get them next time,’ that’s our mantra.”

They’ve caught and released a few little fish, but that’s all, Emily said.

“It’s really just a way for us to get to know each other better. I think we’ve really become a lot closer,” she said. “We talk about the materials we have. We go shopping together. We have the time in the car and the time out there fishing, the joking.”

He’s a really good man, Emily said. He’s quiet and funny and loves his wife Earleen and their family.

“It makes me feel funny because we’ll be down there fishing, and he’ll say, ‘Thanks a lot,’” Emily said, softly. “I know I’m not going to have him around forever.”

Family traditions

Terry grew up in Cumberland County, fishing the creeks with his father and a neighbor. He’s been a lifelong bass fisherman. Bass are aggressive, grabbing at the bait.

Trout, he said, are more subtle. Trout grab and then let it go. “So you have to be very sensitive to the hit,” he said. “I had to get a feel for that.”

He’d seen guys fly fishing, and it looked hard. “I probably wouldn’t have tried this if it weren’t for Em.”

He stood in shorts and a T-shirt that said “Life is good,” showing a cartoon guy fishing. Terry and Emily were at one of their regular spots, above an 1880s stone arch bridge near where Slate Hill Road meets the Yellow Breeches in Lower Allen Twp.

Terry took Emily and her two brothers fishing when they were kids. “All the kids fished, but Sis wasn’t crazy about it,” he said. “She was squeamish about getting the fish off the hook.”

He treated her like one of the boys, teaching her to solder. They made a radio together that she still uses. He taught her how to wire lamps correctly, so they wouldn’t catch on fire.

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